The latest issue of X360, the UK's bestselling independent Xbox 360 magazine went on sale this week, in it is an interesting industry reaction piece to Grand Theft Auto V. Since there's not all that much news about GTA V right now I thought I'd post about it and see if people agree with the opinions given by the experts, as well as the fans; a couple of quotes are from yours truly.

The first talking point in the article unsurprisingly gives thought to the release date. Jesse Divnich, vice president of insights and analysis at EEDAR (a videogame research company) says it "could be May, could be October, but it is definitely coming in 2012". Wedbush Securities' Michael Pachter, who hasn't been right about many things regarding GTA, believed the game would be released a week before E3 (end of May), although it's worth pointing out this article was written before we heard news of Max Payne 3's delay, which subsequently rendered a May release for GTA V extremely implausible.

I was asked what I thought of an October 2012 release with GTA going head-to-head in sales against a new Call of Duty game, and if it could break the franchise's sales record:

"It'll certainly be interesting if their releases are close together", says Chris Phillips, founder of influential fan site The GTA Place. "COD has seen some insane numbers. I believe GTA V can most definitely give them a run for their money, and I would love to see the game reclaim that record."

And on how a GTA game could be improved:

It calls for the kind of expertise possessed by someone who's spent years tirelessly documenting - not to mention playing - all things GTA. People like Chris Phillips... "I'd really like to see a military presence in GTA V," he asserts. "The return of tanks and military aircraft pursuing you in the wake of your epic path of destruction will always be an awesome 'holy shit this is badass' experience."

Our friends at GTANet are also quoted on this:

And people like the team behind the massive GTA fan network GTANet... "Bring back the satire," they plead, speaking as one omniscient, GTA-loving entity. "Realism is great, but one of the strongest elements of GTA is the satirical take on American culture."

So the consensus among "experts" and fans alike seems to be that we're looking at an October 2012 release date. And that we think if GTA is going to improve it needs to move back towards its roots, to have more archaic humour, and plain and simple just be more fun - less of the realism. What are your thoughts?

For anyone wanting to read the full 2-page article, I've stitched together 8 high-res screenshots of the digital format of the magazine from my iPad and produced a full image of it here:

Rockstar have updated the Android version of Grand Theft Auto III: 10 Year Anniversary Edition today. Version 1.3 features added support for the Asus Transformer Prime and Medion LifeTab tablet devices, plus other updates including:

The addition of Integrated with Immersion Haptic Vibration Feedback

The ability to tailor your visual experience with new video display settings

The ability to install the game to an SD memory card

Improved controls for Xperia Play and supported gamepads plus full support for the GameStop Wireless Game Controller

Additional technical fixes

To update your game just head over to the Android Market on the web or on your device where you'll be prompted to download the latest version.

Rockstar have stated that an update for the iOS version is currently being worked on, more information will be coming forth on that soon.

The MTASA team have just released the latest update to their multiplayer mod for San Andreas. Version 1.3, which has been in the RC stage for the last 2 weeks, has now become stable and brings the following improvements and fixes with it:

fixes for various network problems which occured in 1.1 and 1.2 series (including a fix for "Map download breaking often on large transfers" issue)

The ESRB website has recently been updated to include two new entries for GTA games on the PlayStation 3, one for Grand Theft Auto 3, the other for Vice City. The publisher in both cases is listed as Sony Computer Entertainment America, which suggests both titles will be appearing as PS2 classics. This unfortunately means they're unlikely to be on the receiving end of any HD treatment, but still, they'll be nice to have in your collection.

You can see the ESRB searches for GTA3 and Vice City showing the entries. I've included a couple of screenshots below in case it's removed for some reason:

There's no official word from Rockstar on this, so we don't know of any release dates or pricing information. We're also not sure why San Andreas has curiously been left out, and/or if it may appear at a later date.

On a slightly related note, this year will be Vice City's 10th anniversary. If Rockstar are planning similar things to what they've been doing for GTA3, it wouldn't surprise me at all if we see Vice City appearing on iOS and Android later this year either.

Rockstar Games today announced that Max Payne 3 will be delayed by a couple of months, to ensure it will deliver "the highest quality, groundbreaking entertainment experience" that we expect. Originally slated for a March 2012 release, the new dates for the PS3 and Xbox 360 are 15th May, 2012 in North America and 18th May, 2012 internationally. The PC version will come 2 weeks later on 29th May, 2012 in North America and 1st June, 2012 internationally.

Now the question on GTA V fans' minds is will this delay affect the release of GTA V? It's worth pointing out here that GTA V currently has no official release date, so any delay won't really be seen by us in terms of specific dates. Based on Rockstar's recent trend of delivering blockbuster titles in time for the summer period, as well as the "2405 theory", many fans believed a Summer 2012 release was on the cards, in fact, many insist that the game must be released on the 24th May 2012 due to the aforementioned theory.

From a sales point of view it would be extremely unwise for a company to release two huge games around the same time, as this pits the two against each other and thus reduces sales of each, since most people for a variety of reasons don't buy multiple games at once, instead opting for one or the other. So with Max Payne 3 taking up this spot, is an October 2012 date looking more likely for GTA V?

Personally, I think so. My prediction right from the start was an October 2012 release, and based on this news today I think it's looking even more possible. Especially bearing in mind that we haven't even seen a second (or third etc.) trailer for the game yet. That said, The Scotsman recently reported that Rockstar North were looking for games testers, hinting that the game was nearing completion and ready for the painstakingly laborious testing stage of development. The position has since been removed from Rockstar's Jobs site, however there are a number of others still open for applications.

In conclusion, none of us can say with any real certainty when the game will be released, but we think it's safe to say the May 2012 release many of you were hoping for is looking impossible unlikely now. So can we turn our hope to October 2012? Or do you think it will be even later than that, perhaps May 2013? Let us know the comments!

A couple of weeks before Christmas we posted about a mod in the works that brings Vice City to the world of GTA IV. The Vice City RAGE team are now proud to announce that they have released the first public beta of their mod. Check out the trailer below:

Looks awesome! To play this you'll need an unmodded copy of Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City. Got that? If so, here's the official torrent of the mod. It's 3.35GB so best leave it running in the background while you do other things. Have you got this installed? Let us know what it's like in the comments.

Happy new year everyone! If you're reading this on the main site you'll notice things have changed a bit. This updated layout is just one of a number of changes we have planned for The GTA Place in 2012, and we hope you'll like the changes we've made so far.

The first new feature I'd like to point out is the new live search at the top right hand corner of every page, this offers quick and easy access to all our content (which we are in the process of making even better), with search results appearing as you type.

Perhaps more obvious is the fact we've moved the navigation to the right hand side, and also made it much bigger, while still allowing ample space for content as well as giving us the opportunity to highlight new and interesting content through features which we will be regularly updating.

A number of improvements have also been made to the backend code which should mean pages load slightly faster for you. As with all site updates, there may be a few bugs here and there that need to be ironed out. If you see any, do let us know in the comments and we'll get them fixed ASAP.

As stated last week, this is just the first of the changes we have planned. Stay tuned for more updates in the coming weeks including the launch of our mobile website and v2.0 of our downloads database!